Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 102: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

=BT2- ‘“ How did they get you, Pete?” he asked, forcing a smile. “Cotched me in a kind of net, the dang, sneakin’ varmints. They’re a pest like a horned toad. Ye don’t know they can sting ye till you step on ’em in the dark.” “Didn’t you know you were in their country?” “You bet. I come lookin’ for ’em. Old blind McNary, a prospector in the Pana- mints, tole me all ‘bout these here Mayans year afore last, when he was dyin’, Tole me "bout the mine they had and the precious jewels wuth more’n gold, di’monds he said.” “Diamonds!” ejaculated Tench. He felt of the leather thong about his neck. It had worked round so that the “‘ Sun’s Win- dow” was at the back and could not be seen from below. “You bet. Di’monds big as a hen’s egg, wuth more’n gold nuggets. Yaller, too, and a yaller di’mond is wuth more’n a white di’mond. Scarcer’n bowlegged frogs in a toad puddle. A hat full of ’em ‘ll put a guy on easy street for keeps, and they’re right here, too, kid. These Injuns has got plenty of ’em. “They flings ’em round like they was pebbles on the beach, and they ain’t got no six-guns, nor bows and arrows neither. If it weren’t for their danged nets, tappin’ their till w’ud be a job for a stool-pigeon. “Vou git me out of here and I'll show ye the way. They won’t never git Black Pete no more. Git a move on. Shove that lad- der down, and I’ll split with you, fifty-fifty.” “ Nets, yeu say,” queried Tench, “‘ What kind of nets?” “‘ How could I see?” Black Pete growled. “‘ Fust I knew, thar I was trussed up like a padri’ge on a bastin’ fork. They ain’t hu- man, them Injuns, like a Ute, or a ’Pache, or a Crow. I’ve lived with Injuns all my life and fit~’’em off and on, too, but these here Mayans are tarnal devils. “ They ain’t proper Injuns ’tall. They’re just a kinda grown up louse. If it weren’t for them yaller di’monds I’d never want to see ’em again nohow. “Took at these jail-birds here,’ Pete waved an arm derisively to include the five or six wretched, diminutive Mayans who had oe about him, and who were look- | ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ing up dumbly and ignorantly with beady little pig eyes, while the colloquy between the two white men was going on in a tone and language quite foreign to their under- standing. Tench ignored the robber for the moment, and spoke in Mayan to the nearest inmate of the chamber. ‘What are you there for?” he asked. The forlorn Mayan answered dully: “I did not go to the baths. I am here for half a year.” ‘““And you?” Tench addressed another. “For eating a rabbit,” confessed the second Mayan. ‘*'You?” he asked the third. ‘Because I would not marry. I don’t want children to be thrown into running water.” The others were there for other infrac- tions of the Mayan code, one for consuming the entire family ration of maize, another for cheating in the distance-running race, another for failing to bow and pray in the presence of Za. Pete’s mouth fell open in amazement when he heard Tench converse mie the Mayans in their own tongue. ‘You savvy the lingo, eh, kid?” i in- terjected. “Yes, I am a Mayan,” Tench responded solemnly. Pete roared in laughter. “ Can that stuff! A red-blooded he-American like you tied up to these dirty lice? It’s a joke. ’Spe- cially now that you look like a fust-class gun-toter. When I fust peeped ye out thar on the desert, ye was nothin’ more’n a ghost. But ye come back, kid, ye sure come back. Does me good to look at ye. Seein’ as ye’re a white man and me down hyear in this fry- in’ hole with these squirmin’ hell devils, why don’t ye git a move on, and toss that ladder in?” “ Wait a minute,” Tench countered. “‘ Do you think you know the way. out of this country?” “You bet.” “It’s tricky. Which way first?” Pete laughed as if at a marvelous witti- cism. “ Don’t know as I could tell ye ’zact- ly, but pull me out of this and I'll show you. ‘Guess there ain’t no white man south comic com